The week of Sino-Italian Dialogue on Food Safety

03 July 2023

To celebrate the World Food Safety Day, the Embassy of Italy to the P.R.C., and the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce (CICC) organized two dedicated sessions – on June 26th in Beijing and June 27th in Tianjin - to raise awareness about the importance of food safety issues and promote measures to prevent, detect, and manage foodborne risks.

The second seminar held in Tianjin was jointly organized with the Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone and supported by the EU SME Centre Advocacy Platform at the Tianjin Airport Sino-European Centre.

Standards, Traceability, and Sustainability but also Innovation were the main topics leading the discussion between major Chinese and Italian stakeholders. The events gathered institutions, local governments, academia, experts, and business from both countries in exchange on best practices and new tools to ensure food safety.

The first seminar held on June 26th at the Embassy of Italy was opened by H.E. the Italian Ambassador to the PRC, Massimo Ambrosetti, who welcomed the guests present on site and those connected online from Italy.

Jie Xiaolei, President of the Henan Agricultural University, gave his thanks for the invitation, and prompted a successful cooperation between scientific experts of the two countries.

CICC Secretary General, Renzo Isler, remarked: “CICC, as representative of the Italian enterprises in China is committed to work together with the Chinese and the Italian authorities to increase awareness on the importance of food safety among all stakeholders and, at the same time, promote open trade between Italy and China”.

The second seminar, on June 27th in Tianjin, was opened by Zheng Jian, Director of the Tianjin Italian S.M.E. Industrial Park Office, Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone, who remarked on the importance of cooperation between China and Italy in terms of laws, standards, and joint scientific research that enhance food safety supervision, testing, and assessment.

"Food safety is paramount to people's health and well-being and plays a crucial role in national development and people's livelihood. The Free Trade Zone has long been committed to serving food production and business enterprises, focusing on meeting the needs of enterprises and providing comprehensive support.”

In her opening remarks, Prof. Alessandra Guidi, Science and Technology Attaché at the Embassy of Italy to the P.R.C., stressed the importance of food standards worldwide. Italy is one of the countries that always paid attention to the agrifood sector, developing standards and new technologies to guarantee food safety and transparency in food traceability, reducing the risk of food fraud and food waste.

"The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the Italian Embassy and Consulates in China, are fully committed to fostering scientific cooperation in the agrifood sector through our well-structured cooperation framework. I'm confident that the high level of collaboration between our countries and the stable exchange of knowledge and experience will contribute to improving food safety at the global level with a positive rebound of bilateral commercial exchanges".

Cristina Corsini, Coordinator of the CICC F&B Working Group and C.E.O. at Good Italy, then emphasized how Italian companies operating in China are committed to maintaining high standards related to the safe consumption of the products, implementing several measures to improve the traceability of food products, including the use of labeling and tracking systems.

"We recognize the importance of training and ongoing education for food industry operators. We must invest in the preparation and qualification of personnel to ensure they understand and apply regulations and best practices to guarantee food safety.”

Liu Meng, representative of the Division for Food Production Supervision at the Tianjin Administration for Market Regulation, discussed the recent measures and policies implemented by the Tianjin Government to ensure food safety in food production and processing. In recent years China has made huge progress in implementing measures to strengthen food safety regulations, increase inspections, and improve the traceability of food products from the farm to the table.

Alessio Petino, Business Advisor at the EUSM Centre, then introduced their latest survey on the CIFER system providing company feedback. Although the CIFER System improved significantly in recent years, companies still encounter many issues both for low-risk and high-risk products that need to be addressed.

From Chinese and Italian academia, respectively, we welcomed Prof. Zheng Wenjie from the Tianjin Normal University and Prof. Francesca Spigarelli, University of Macerata, with a video message. They discussed the importance of new technologies to safeguard the quality and traceability of the products and reduce the risk of food fraud.

Prof. Zheng Wenjie explained that academics and researchers have been working on developing new innovative techniques to reduce the risk of food fraud in recent years. Among the latest innovation methods, “Near-infrared spectroscopy(NIR)” is the most advanced in aquatic product traceability and origin identification.

Prof. Francesca Spigarelli, in her video message, pointed out how blockchain technology (BCT) applied in the food industry help connect all the stakeholders involved more efficiently and implement the traceability of the products. The BCT aims to create a more transparent process and reliable information.

Prof. Zheng Wenjie, Tianjin Normal University

Prof. Francesca Spigarelli, University of Macerata (Video-message)

In the second part of the seminar, we welcomed representatives from Italian companies in Tianjin Xie Fujiang, Technical Manager at Goglio (Tianjin) Packaging Co., Ltd., Gabriele Pegoraro, CICC Promoter and Operation and Financial Manager at Venezia Club and a local company, Wen Jingyao, Vice president at the Tianjin Scinan Dairy Co., Ltd to discuss innovative methods for traceability, how companies ensure food safety and how they align their business operation to ensure high food quality in critical segments such as food packaging, food service and food processing.